Service provider network migration

ABSTRACT

A service provider network migration system migrate services from a first network infrastructure to a second network infrastructure. A joined circuits dataset is created that associates circuits in the first network infrastructure with a service provided by the circuit and a customer receiving the service via the first network infrastructure. A product mappings dataset is created that maps each service in the first network infrastructure to at least one target service to be provided in the second network infrastructure. A migration sequencing server creates a migration plan according to the information in the datasets, and forecasts for customer migration rate and revenue generation for the target services are estimated. A provisioning server configures parameters for the circuits in the second network infrastructure via a network according to the migration plan to deploy the target services in the second network infrastructure.

PRIORITY

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent applicationSer. No. 61/888,214, filed on Oct. 8, 2013, which is incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Companies, such as traditional communications network service providers(e.g., wireline service providers, cellular service providers, cableservice providers, satellite service providers, etc.),application-specific service providers, and other types of companiesface great competitive pressure to provide the best service to theircustomers and to develop and deploy new services to the marketplacefaster than their competitors.

Furthermore, major telecommunication providers, cable network carriersand other types of service providers may have extremely large legacynetworks in place, which may service thousands or millions of customers.The array of legacy products and services provided by these carriers canbe large and complex. Also, the type of customers may be diverse. Forexample, a customer base may vary from small single site voice and datacustomers up to the largest multi-national corporations which subscribeto hundreds of legacy services across tens, hundreds or even thousandsof locations worldwide. Furthermore, legacy network infrastructures oftelecommunication providers may span tens of thousands of central officewire centers worldwide.

To keep up with demand and to provide the level of service required bymany customers, new infrastructures need to be rolled out and customersshould be migrated to these new infrastructures. For example, internetprotocol (IP) and extremely high-capacity, fiber optic networks may bemandatory for providing the level of service required or desired by manycustomers. As a result, service providers may be faced with undergoing acomprehensive analysis to enable educated decisions for the rapidcreation and deployment of telecommunication networks and services thatmeet their customer demands, minimize service disruption during rollout,and provide the highest quality of service within the customer demands.However, due to the cost, difficulty and know-how needed for undergoingsuch an analysis, many companies may fall short in their analysis,possibly resulting in failure to meet customer demands, failure toimprove quality of service, failure to maximize revenue and failure tominimize customer loss.

SUMMARY

According to an embodiment, a system migrates network services from afirst network infrastructure to a second network infrastructure. Thefirst network infrastructure may include a first set of circuitsproviding voice and data services over a network to customer premises. Aservice provider network migration system includes at least oneinventory and provisioning server to capture data from the plurality ofcircuits in the first network infrastructure and to configure circuitsin the second network infrastructure. The service provider networkmigration system includes at least one migration sequencing server toaccess one or more databases storing a provisioned circuits datasetincluding information for the plurality of circuits in the first networkinfrastructure, and a billing dataset including information forcustomers at the customer premises.

The migration sequencing server comprises a modeler and reconcilatorgenerating a joined circuits dataset from the information in theprovisioned circuits dataset and the billing dataset, and the joinedcircuits dataset associates each of the plurality of circuits in thefirst network infrastructure with at least one voice or data serviceprovided by the circuit and a customer receiving the at least one voiceor data service. A migration plan creator receives migration parametersfor migrating the voice and data services from the first technologyinfrastructure to target services in the second technologyinfrastructure, the migration parameters including sequencinginformation for migration to the second network infrastructure providingthe target services.

The migration plan creator creates a migration plan for migrating theplurality of circuits in the first network infrastructure to thecircuits in the second network infrastructure based on the joinedcircuits dataset and the migration parameters, wherein the migrationplan includes a sequence for migrating the plurality of circuits in thefirst network infrastructure to the circuits in the second networkinfrastructure.

A simulator determines forecasts for customer migration rate and revenuegeneration for the target services based on the migration plan, historiccustomer migration data and attributes of customers for the voice anddata services provided in the first network infrastructure. If themigration plan is selected for implementation based on the forecasts,the inventory and provisioning server configures parameters for thecircuits in the second network infrastructure via a network according tothe migration plan to deploy the target services in the second networkinfrastructure.

According to an embodiment, a service provider network migration systemmigrate services from a first network infrastructure to a second networkinfrastructure. The system comprises one or more databases storingdatasets. A joined circuits dataset associates each of a plurality ofcircuits in the first network infrastructure with a service provided bythe circuit and a customer receiving the service. A product mappingsdataset includes a mapping for each service in the first networkinfrastructure to at least one target service of a plurality of targetservices to be provided in the second network infrastructure. Legacynetwork migration records (LMARs) each include a customer informationfor a customer, any services subscribed to by the customer in the firstnetwork infrastructure, a circuit in the first network infrastructureproviding each service subscribed to by the customer, a wire centerincluding the circuit that services the customer, revenue informationassociated with revenue generated by the subscribed service, and atleast of the target services mapped to each subscribed service.

At least one migration sequencing server comprises a modeler andreconcilator generating the joined circuits dataset; and a migrationplan creator to receive migration parameters for migrating the servicesfrom the first technology infrastructure to the target services in thesecond technology infrastructure, the migration parameters includingsequencing information for migration of the plurality of circuits in thefirst network infrastructure to the circuits in the second networkinfrastructure providing the target services. The migration plan creatorcreates a migration plan for to the target services provided viacircuits in the second network infrastructure based on the joinedcircuits dataset, the product mappings dataset, the LMARs and themigration parameters, wherein the migration plan includes a sequence formigrating to the target services.

A simulator determines forecasts for customer migration rate and revenuegeneration for the target services based on the migration plan, historiccustomer migration data and attributes of the customers, wherein if themigration plan is selected for implementation based on the forecasts, aninventory and provisioning server configures parameters for the circuitsin the second network infrastructure via a network according to themigration plan to deploy the target services in the second networkinfrastructure.

According to yet another embodiment, a method of migrating services froma first network infrastructure to a second network infrastructureincludes determining a joined circuits dataset associating each of aplurality of circuits in the first network infrastructure with a serviceprovided by the circuit and a customer receiving the service;determining a product mappings dataset including a mapping for eachservice in the first network infrastructure to at least one targetservice of a plurality of target services to be provided in the secondnetwork infrastructure; receiving migration parameters for migrating theservices from the first technology infrastructure to the target servicesin the second technology infrastructure, the migration parametersincluding sequencing information for migration to the target services;creating a migration plan for migrating to the target services in thesecond network infrastructure based on the joined circuits dataset, theproduct mappings dataset, and the migration parameters, wherein themigration plan includes a sequence for migrating the plurality ofcircuits in the first network infrastructure to the circuits in thesecond network infrastructure; and determining forecasts for customermigration rate and revenue generation for the target services based onthe migration plan, historic customer migration data and attributes ofthe customers. If the migration plan is selected for implementationbased on the forecasts, configuring parameters for the circuits in thesecond network infrastructure via a network according to the migrationplan to deploy the target services in the second network infrastructure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The embodiments of the invention will be described in detail in thefollowing description with reference to the following figures.

FIGS. 1A-B illustrate network infrastructures and a service providernetwork migration system migrating services from a first networkinfrastructure to a second network infrastructure, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates servers for the service provider network migrationsystem, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3A illustrates a block diagram of the service provider networkmigration system, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3B shows a data model of a legacy network migration analyticalrecord, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates a data flow diagram for the service provider networkmigration system, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates a method according to an embodiment for creating amigration plan;

FIG. 6 shows an example of a migration plan;

FIG. 7 shows an example of forecasted metrics over time for a migrationplan;

FIG. 8 shows an example of net present values for forecasted metrics;and

FIG. 9 shows an example of scores generated for a migration plan.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the principles of theembodiments are described by referring mainly to examples thereof. Inthe following description, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. It will beapparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art, that theembodiments may be practiced without limitation to these specificdetails. In some instances, well known methods and structures have notbeen described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure theembodiments.

According to embodiments, a service provider network migration systemcan simulate and analyze different communication network servicedeployments. The system may use the simulations and analysis to identifyoptimal service deployment scenarios in the network to maximize qualityof service and satisfy customer demands as well as determine a rolloutprocedure to deploy network infrastructure and/or new services thatminimizes service disruption and maximizes customer migration to the newinfrastructures and services. Simulation may include generating amigration plan and determining forecasts and scoring for the migrationplan. Furthermore, the system, for example, includes a networkprovisioning subsystem to provision circuits according to a networkmigration sequence determined from the simulations. Provisioning mayinclude configuring circuits according to parameters determined from thesimulation to provided needed bandwidth and accommodate quality ofservice (QoS) requirements for the services provided by the new networkand minimizing downtime during the migration. According to an example,the provisioning subsystem may include distributed servers thatdetermine and store configuration parameters determined based on amigration plan. Furthermore, the distributed servers may remotely setthe parameters in the circuits in the target network infrastructure viaa network.

Multiple technical problems may be solved by the embodiments describedherein. For example, when migrating from a legacy network infrastructureto a target network infrastructure, the network service provider mustdetermine whether the services currently provided on the legacy networkinfrastructure can be supported by the target network infrastructure,such as in terms of QoS and service level requirements for the services,and the service provider must determine other migration parameters.Through the simulation and analysis performed by the service providernetwork migration system, the system can determine a migration plan todeploy services in the target network infrastructure which minimizesservice disruption for customers and maximizes customer migration to thenew infrastructures, as well as accommodates QoS and service levelrequirements for the services deployed in the target networkinfrastructure. Another technical problem solved by the embodiments, isthe configuration of circuits in the target network infrastructure.Typically, a network administrator may determine the circuit parametersthrough use of spreadsheets and estimates of customer demand, and thenmanually configure circuits which is highly susceptible to user errorand can result in a service disruption for the customer. Theprovisioning subsystem can determines circuit parameters based on thesimulation and remotely configure the circuits. Yet another technicalproblem solved by the embodiments is regarding the mapping of customersto existing circuits. In order to migrate customers to services on thetarget network infrastructure, an initial step to determining demand,such as in terms of bandwidth and/or other network parameters, in thelegacy network infrastructure is to determine demand of each customer ona circuit. A service provider may determine the aggregate demand on acircuit, but often it is difficult to determine demand of a specificcustomer or service used by a specific customer on a circuit. Theservice provider network migration system can correlate data from thedifferent sources and join the data into a single data set to runsimulations and determine how to map existing services to new servicesto be provided on the new infrastructure.

A service as used herein may include the supplying or providing ofinformation over a network, and is also referred to as a communicationsnetwork service. Examples of services include but are not limited to anyvoice, data, cable or satellite television, streaming audio or video,etc., provided over a network.

Network infrastructure refers to the hardware and software resources ofa network that enable network connectivity, communication, operationsand management of a network. Network infrastructure provides thecommunication path and services between users, processes, applications,services and external networks which may include the Internet. Networkinfrastructure may include network hardware (e.g., routers, switches,network cards, wireless routers, cables, connectors, servers, etc.),network software (e.g., network operations and management, operatingsystems, firewall, network security applications, etc.) andcommunication mediums and protocols. One example discussed belowincludes simulations for a migration of services from a legacy networkinfrastructure comprising a copper wire telecommunication system to atarget network infrastructure comprising a fiber optic system, and therollout of services on the fiber optic system. However, the serviceprovider network migration system may be used to simulate, analyze, andprovide service rollout for services from any type of first networkinfrastructure (e.g., a legacy network infrastructure) to any type ofsecond network infrastructure (e.g., target network infrastructure). Theinfrastructure may include wireless network infrastructure as well aswired network infrastructure. Legacy network infrastructure refers to anold or existing network infrastructure and legacy product and servicesrefers to the services provided over the legacy network infrastructure.Target network infrastructure refers to a new network infrastructurebeing deployed and target product and services refers to the services tobe deployed provided over the target network infrastructure. Customersare migrated from the legacy services to the target services.

The service provider network migration system includes scenario-basedsimulation to simulate different scenarios encompassing differentchangeable parameters or variables for services and networkinfrastructure to be deployed. The system may include a multi-linearsimulator capable of running simulations for different scenarios. Theoutput of the simulator includes an analysis of each scenario and ananalysis of business and technology sub-solutions for each simulation. Asolution includes an analysis of different factors for deploying aservice given changeable parameters, constraints, and existing serviceparameters, if any. Sub-solutions provide an analysis of differentcategories of the factors. For example, a business sub-solution includesan analysis of business factors. A technology sub-solution includes ananalysis of technology factors, etc. For example, a solution orsub-solution may include an analysis of the complexity of a networkmigration, number of circuits, productivity of the workers, costs,profits, customer impact, QoS parameters and other factors. Thesimulations are operable to take into consideration existingimplementations of infrastructure, operations and services, and can beused to evaluate the impact on the existing services when migratingcustomers to services on the target network infrastructure.

Through its simulation and analysis, the service provider networkmigration system is able to determine optimal sequencing and timing formigrating customers to the new infrastructure. For example, a legacyinfrastructure may have customers on many different circuits, and theservice provider needs to determine how to migrate the customers to thenew infrastructure while taking into consideration customer constraintson timing, QoS, etc. Because customers may be on many differentcircuits, the service provider network migration system allows the userto slice, dice and select which circuits to move together, taking intoconsideration various parameters. For example, the service providernetwork migration system can determine which wire centers to move firstso as to minimize the down time and the disruption caused by the networkmigration, and also determine how much revenue the service is going togenerate from the migration, and what are the expenditures.

For example, in the context of migrating from a copper infrastructure(e.g., legacy network infrastructure) to a fiber optic infrastructure(e.g., target network infrastructure) for telecommunication services,there may be multiple circuits of different types currently servicingcustomers. The service provider network migration system may group thecircuits by type of circuit, customer, products, wire center, etc.Approaches and processes for initial discovery, analysis, and executionof migration are determined to generate a migration plan to determinethe sequencing for disconnecting customers from the copper circuits andre-connecting them to fiber nodes in the new fiber optic infrastructureand determining other procedural steps including the last step ofsalvaging of the copper. The sequencing for example is based on theunderlying technologies, the customers, the legacy services, theavailable target services and the availability of new target networkinfrastructures.

The service provider network migration system may utilize data from avariety of different sources to simulate and analyze different sequencesfor migration. For example, service providers often have separate datafor billing, network inventory, network element provisioning, customerservice records, contract and data describing how the currentinfrastructure is being used and is allocated to customers. The serviceprovider network migration system can correlate the data from thedifferent sources and join the data into a single data set to runsimulations and determine how to map existing services to new servicesto be provided on the new infrastructure. Furthermore, the serviceprovider network migration system can generate models for the simulationengine. The models may include variables representing customers,services and infrastructure. Constraints for migration and providingservices, and the models may be used by the simulation engine forforecasting in order to determine optimal sequencing for migration andservice roll-out. Optimal sequencing may minimize down time anddisruption, provide the maximum quality of service, minimize customerloss and maximize profitability for the service provider.

FIGS. 1A-B show a copper-based telecommunications network infrastructure10 and services that are migrated to an IP fiber-basedtelecommunications network infrastructure 20. FIGS. 1A and 1B are thesame except FIG. 1A shows details of the legacy copper-basedtelecommunications network infrastructure 10 and represents the IPfiber-based telecommunications network infrastructure 20 as a cloud, andFIG. 1B shows details of the IP fiber-based telecommunications networkinfrastructure 20 but represents the copper-based telecommunicationsnetwork infrastructure 10 as a cloud. The cloud representations of thenetwork infrastructures 10 and 20 shown in FIGS. 1B and 1A respectivelyare meant to represent the detailed diagram of the corresponding networkinfrastructure shown in one of the FIG. 1A or 1B. A service providernetwork migration system 100 can generate metrics 15 for evaluatingcandidate migration plan scenarios 14 for the migration of services fromthe copper-based telecommunications network infrastructure 10 to thefiber-based telecommunications network infrastructure 20. Score cards17, which are further described below, evaluate and score candidatemigration plan scenarios based on the metrics 15. One scenario 16 may beselected based on the metrics 15 and score cards 17 that may be used toascertain an optimal sequencing for migration and service roll-out thatminimizes down time and disruption, provides the capacity (e.g.,bandwidth) for desired services, provides the maximum QoS and/ormaximizes profitability for the service provider. The selected scenario16 may be implemented for the fiber-based telecommunications networkinfrastructure 20 and an example of the fiber-based telecommunicationsnetwork infrastructure 20 that is implemented is described below andshown in FIGS. 1A-B.

Generally, the copper-based telecommunications network infrastructure 10for example includes circuits in a circuit-switched network. Forexample, when a call is made for a voice service, circuits withintelephone exchanges create a continuous wire circuit between the twotelephones, for as long as the call lasts. The telephone exchanges arelocated in central offices that service different geographic regions.The copper-based telecommunications network infrastructure 10 maypredominately use copper lines instead of fiber lines for circuitsbetween wire centers and customer premises. A wire center may encompassthe central office, hardware located inside and outside the centraloffice and connections from the central office to the customer serviceaddress, which is the geographic address of the customer premises, suchas house/building number, street, city, etc. A circuit may include apath between two points or terminals in a network infrastructure forcommunicating signals. The circuit may comprise the equipment includingswitches, wires, etc.

Referring to FIG. 1A, the copper-based telecommunications networkinfrastructure 10 includes, for example, an enterprise customer coppertime-division multiplexing (TDM) network 11, a consumer copper voice anddata network (e.g., digital subscriber line (DSL) and plain oldtelephone service (POTS)) 12, and small business multi-tenant copper TDMvoice network 13. The enterprise customer copper TDM network 11 forexample, includes multiple wire centers connected to a customer datacenter. The wire centers may be connected in a fiber loop but may notuse IP for communications. “OC” which is shown in the connectionsbetween the wire centers and in the connection between the wire centerand the data center refers to optical carrier transmission rates. Also,wire center West 18 is connected to wire centers NW312 and SW312 via adigital signal level 3 (DS3) line, which is also referred to as a T-3line. The wire centers are connected to customer premises equipment(CPE) at the service address of the customer (i.e., at the customerpremises) via copper lines which may be T1 lines.

For the consumer copper voice and data network 12, for example, the wirecenter is connected to the CPE via copper DSL or POTS lines. For thesmall business multi-tenant copper TDM voice network 13, for example,the wire center is connected to CPE at the service address via a T1line. At the CPE, network element 1 is shown that provides data andvoice services, and examples of circuit identifiers (IDs) are shown forthe data and voice circuits.

As discussed above, the system 100 may select the migration scenario 16from a plurality of candidate migration scenarios 14 to implement. Theselected migration scenario 16 is for the fiber-based telecommunicationsnetwork infrastructure 20. The circuit-switched network of thecopper-based telecommunications network infrastructure 10 is contrastedwith a packet switched network that is implemented in the fiber-basedtelecommunications network infrastructure 20. The packet switchednetwork for example uses IP, and the fiber-based telecommunicationsnetwork infrastructure 20 implements broadband services primarily overfiber instead of copper. So, copper lines may be replaced with fiberoptic lines connected to fiber nodes and digital switches instead ofvoice circuits. Fiber may be run to a node for a neighborhood or regionand then copper may be used for a short distance to the service addressor fiber may be run to the service address. As shown in FIG. 1B,FTTN=Fiber To The Node; FTTH=Fiber To The Home; and FTTB=Fiber To TheBuilding. Furthermore, new services are offered on the fiber-basedtelecommunications network infrastructure 20 to replace the servicespreviously offered on the copper-based telecommunications networkinfrastructure 10. For example, voice-switched services are replacedwith IP services in the fiber-based telecommunications networkinfrastructure 20. For example, a voice service provided over acircuit-switched architecture is replaced with voice over IP (VoIP)service in the infrastructure 20. In another example, a legacy dataservice is replaced with a broadband data service in the infrastructure20 that provides higher download and upload bandwidths. For example, newdigital circuits are provisioned in the infrastructure 20 to provide theIP services that bypass circuit-switched hardware of the legacyinfrastructure 10. As is further described below, legacy services aremapped to the new services (referred to as target services) to be rolledout on the infrastructure 20 (e.g., the target infrastructure).

As shown in FIG. 1B, the fiber-based telecommunications networkinfrastructure 20 for example includes enterprise customer network 21,consumer voice and data network 22, and small business multi-tenantnetwork 23. The enterprise customer network 21 uses fiber Ethernet toconnect the wire centers and to connect to the data center. FFTN, FTTB,and FTTH are used to connect to fiber nodes and CPE at the serviceaddress. “EOC” refers to Ethernet over copper which may be used oncopper runs from the fiber node to CPE at service addresses. Theconsumer voice and data network 22 may use FFTH to connect the wirecenter to the CPE at the service address, and the small businessmulti-tenant network 23 may use FTTB to connect the wire center to themulti-tenant building.

The service provider network migration system 100 may be executed by oneor more servers. Servers 105 and 106 are shown but the system 100 may beimplemented by one server or more than two servers. Servers 105 and 106are further described below. In one example, the service providernetwork migration system 100 comprises a plurality of distributedcomputer systems. The distributed computer systems may include serversfor executing simulations to determine candidate migration plans, andone may be selected as the migration plan 16. The distributed computersystems may include servers to extract, transform and load billing,inventory and provisioning data into the system 100 which may be usedfor the simulations, optimization and provisioning of services in thetarget network infrastructure. The distributed computer systems mayinclude servers for monitoring and capturing network parameters,including bandwidth, latency, etc. Also, the distributed computersystems may query the network hardware to determine addresses, such asmedia access control addresses and IP addresses of hardware devices inthe network infrastructures and other configuration parameters. Thisinformation may be mapped to the network parameters and stored tospecify the network parameters for specific devices in the networkinfrastructure. The distributed computer systems may also include aprovisioning system to configure hardware devices, for example, in thetarget network infrastructure. An inventory and provisioning servers 105may remotely perform discovery and capture network parameters ofexisting switches via a network in the infrastructure 10 and remotelyconfigure circuits in the infrastructure 20 via a network. Also, amigration sequencing server 106 may determine migration plans andexecute simulations to score migration plans to determine optimalmigration plans to implement for migrating to the infrastructure 20. Theinventory and provisioning server 105 may include one or more servers,and the migration sequencing server 106 may include one or more servers.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the inventory and provisioning server 105 andthe migration sequencing server 106. The inventory and provisioningserver 105 can remotely perform discovery to identify network elementsin the network infrastructure, such as the copper-basedtelecommunications network infrastructure 10 and the fiber-basedtelecommunications network infrastructure 20 after it is deployed. Also,the inventory and provisioning server 105 can query network elements inthe network infrastructure to capture network parameters for the networkelements, and the inventory and provisioning server 105 can provisionnetwork elements by remotely configuring network elements via a network.Network elements include hardware in the network infrastructure.

Hardware is shown for the servers 105 and 106 which may be used as aplatform for executing one or more of the methods and functionsdescribed herein. The methods and functions may be embodied as softwarestored on one or more non-transitory computer readable storage mediums.The servers 105 and 106 may each include one or more hardware processors201 and 202 that execute machine readable instructions for the software.The servers 105 and 106 also include main memory 210 and 220, such as arandom access memory (RAM), where the software and data for processors201 and 202 reside during runtime, and secondary data storage 211 and221, which may be non-volatile and store software and data. The memoryand secondary data storage are examples of non-transitory computerreadable storage mediums that may be included in the servers 105 and106. The servers 105 and 106 include network interfaces 212 and 222 forconnecting to network elements and other servers and computer systemsvia a network. The network elements may include equipment shown in FIGS.1A-B for the network infrastructures 10 and 20. It will be apparent toone of ordinary skill in the art that the severs 105 and 106 may includeother known components that are not shown.

As shown, the inventory and provisioning server 105 may store andexecute software 230 for discovery and query of network elements in anetwork infrastructure via a network. A legacy network data capturesubsystem 140 shown in FIG. 3A may be implemented by software 230. Thesoftware 230 may send queries to network elements in the networkinfrastructure to identify network elements and determine networkparameters for the network elements. The parameters may include portinformation, circuit IDs for each port, network address information,service information, etc. This information is stored in a data storagefor the system 100 and used to determine the services provided by eachcircuit. Also, the network elements may be queried to determineinformation related to the quality or a health of network element andgenerate alerts to network administrators if a network element isdetermined to be failing or operating in error.

Software 231 for provisioning network elements may be stored andexecuted by the server 105. A network provisioning subsystem 141 shownin FIG. 3A may be implemented by the software 231. Provisioning mayinclude setting network parameters for network elements remotely via anetwork so the network elements perform the desired functions in thenetwork infrastructure. In one example, a software defined networking(SDN) protocol is used to set network parameters. The software 231 mayinclude a rich set of application program interfaces (APIs) that manageand manipulate network elements. The network elements may includesoftware modules that can be remotely configured by the server 105 toperform the desired functions and desired network parameters are set inthe network elements, which may include automated provisioning ofnetwork addresses, assigning specific QoS and latency parameters, etc.

The migration sequencing server 106 may include migration and sequencingsoftware 240. The software 240 may include software for performingstages 110, 120 and 130 described in further detail with respect to FIG.3A. The servers 105 and 106 may be connected via one or more networks toeach other and equipment in the infrastructures 10 and 20.

FIG. 3A shows a logical representation of the system 100 includingfunctional blocks but it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill inthe art that the system 100 may be comprised of hardware and/or softwarewhich includes machine readable instructions stored on a non-transitorycomputer readable medium and executable by at least one processor toimplement the stages.

Data stage 110 receives data from one or more data sources 102 and userinput 170. The data sources 102 may include the user's internal datasources, such as data sources of a service provider identifying customerinformation, billing information, network infrastructure information,etc. The data sources 102 may include external data sources, whichprovide this information and/or other information. The other informationmay include information for the simulation engine to forecast variablesrelated to migration of services. External data sources may includecommercial organizations or databases or government agencies thatprovide information on service usage and regulations, constraints forimplementing services, service address standardization, service addressgeo-coding, customer demographics and competitive service overlays. Thedata sources 102 may include multiple billing and accounting systems,network element inventory and tracking systems, customer relationshipmanagement systems, etc.

The data stage 110 may include a modeler and reconciliator 111, anextract, transform and load (ETL) module 112, and a Legacy MigrationScenario Plan (LMSP) module 113. The modeler and reconciliator receivesdata from the data sources 102 and user input 170, and the data isaggregated to create models for simulating and forecasting in asimulation and forecasting stage 120. The models may include customermodels, product models and network models. In one example, the modelsare data sets including attributes describing the customers, servicesand network infrastructure. In one example, a service provider'sdisparate product, customer, billing and network datasets are aggregatedinto a Legacy Network Migration Analytic Record (LMAR), which mayinclude the customer model, the product model and the network model. Aproduct for example is a service that is offered to a customer. Onceimplemented (e.g., the customer orders a product and it is provided tothe customer), the product is referred to as a service. Legacy networkmigration specific data may be added to the LMAR by the user input 170,data linking of additional datasets, templates, machine prediction orother means. The legacy network migration specific data may include butis not limited to, costing parameters, segmentation groupings,sequencing information and sizing data, investment data, networkinventories, customer demographics data, competitive overlay data,contract data, etc. The LMAR may be updated over time based on newlyreceived data.

The modeler and reconciliator 111 performs reconciliation.Reconciliation may include associating network assets, productinformation, customer information, and billing information and storingthe associated information in a data structure. Reconciling includesassociated the billing information with network assets determined toprovided services identified by the billing information. For example, acustomer and a service used by the customer are linked to a specificcircuit in the copper-based telecommunication network infrastructure 10from billing information for that service. It links the network asset(i.e., the circuit) and the customer and the service provided by thecircuit to the customer. The wire center including the circuit may alsobe linked. This reconciliation provides a correlated view forsimulating, planning and executing the network migration. In oneexample, reconciliation may be based on a working telephone number forvoice circuits or a circuit ID for digital circuits as is furtherexplained below.

The ETL 112 for example extracts data from the data sources 102 and userinput 170. The extraction may include receiving data pushed and/orpulled from the data sources 102 which may be in the LMAR. This mayinclude retrieving data from the data sources 102 and/or periodicallyreceiving data from the data sources 102 that is pushed to the system100. Furthermore, each data source may also use a different dataorganization structure and/or format. Such data sources may includerelational databases and flat files, but may also include non-relationaldatabase structures. The extraction extracts and parses the data into aformat for the transformation process.

The transformation process may apply rules and/or functions to theextracted data, to prepare the data to be loaded into data storage 150.The data storage 150 may store any information used by the system 100and may comprise one or more databases. The requirements for thetransformation process may be a function of the extracted data and theultimate form of the data stored in the data storage 150. Suchtransformation rules and functions may include selecting certain fields,translating coded symbols, encoding new symbols, calculating values,merging sources, etc.

The load process loads the transformed data into the data storage 150.The data may be loaded into a data structure, such as a database or flatfile. The loaded data may overwrite old information with new data andmay maintain a history and audit trail of all changes to the database.

In one example, the ETL 112 formats, transforms the data into LegacyNetwork Migration Analytical Records (LMARs) for analysis and scenarioplanning purposes. The LMARs may be used for the customer, product,network, scenario parameters, migration sequencing information, andsizing data needed for legacy network migration analysis, forecasting,scoring and predictive modeling. The LMARs may be saved in the datastorage 150 and loaded into system memory as a virtual flat table forfast query processing.

The LMSP creator 113 can aggregate existing carrier product, customer,billing and network datasets with additional migration specific costing,sequencing, sizing, investment, and inventory data, which may beprovided as part of the user input 170, to generate migration plans,such as the LMSPs.

LMSPs may be selected for different types of planning, such asCustomer-Product Scenario Planning, Labor Sizing Scenario Planning,Sequencing Scenario Planning, and Salvage and Operating Savings ScenarioPlanning. Also, different approaches may be applied to different typesof planning. LMSPs and the different approaches are further describedbelow.

A simulation and forecasting stage 120 may include a simulator 121 and ascenario plan scorer 122. The simulator 121 runs simulations fromdifferent migration plans (e.g., LSMPs) and the LMARs to determinemetrics analyzing the migration plans. The metrics generated from thesimulations may include predictions of the outcomes for implementing anLMSP to migrate to the new infrastructure. For example, monthly andquarterly legacy product disposition, migration revenue impact,migration subscriber impact, network investment, migration cost, laborheadcounts, salvage recovery and earnings before interest, taxes,depreciation, and amortization forecasts are generated. The simulationresults may be visualized graphically and as tabular data in a dashboard131 and may include time series forecasts of the metrics. The dashboard131 may include a graphical user interface.

The scenario plan scorer 122 scores the simulated migration plans basedon the metrics generated by the simulation engine 121. In one example,the scenario plan scorer 122 uses the simulation results to generate ascore card for a migration plan. The scoring card may be visualized inthe dashboard 131 for review by the user. Individual migration plans arecompared and ranked against each other via the scoring matrix, allowingthe user to quickly compare migration plans. The scenario plan scorer122 can score scenario plans using time independent scoring metrics orby using system-generated time series forecasts from the simulations tocalculate the Net Present Value (NPV), rate of return, and the estimatedreturn on investment (ROI) of the migration plan. The migration plan isscored by multiple dimensions or metrics including: customer impact,complexity, size, productivity, capital investment, reoccurring revenue,onetime expense, onetime salvage recovery and reoccurring savings. Eachmigration plan can have a single aggregate score assigned to it. One ormore of these metrics is forecasted and the score is determined from theforecasts. The migration plan score is calculated using all of theindividual scores for the metrics.

A scenario selection stage 130 may include the dashboard 131 and ascenario plan optimizer 132. The scenario plan optimization engine 132may identify the optimum migration plan 140 from the scoring, usergoals, constraints, etc. A migration plan can be quickly refined andoptimized by changing scenario scope, constraints, parameters, and/orapproach and then re-running the simulation and scoring. The scenarioplan optimizer 132 automatically optimizes a migration plan by settingan optimization objective. Optimization objectives may include: minimizecustomer impact, minimize cost, minimize time, maximize revenue, andmaximize return on investment. A plurality of migration plans may besimulated and forecasts for each migration plan are determined. A scorefor each migration plan is determined based on the forecasts. Themigrations plans are compared based on their scores, and the dashboard131 can display the scores and can display information for the migrationplans that prioritizes the migration plans based on their scores.

The dashboard 131 may display the metrics, scores, comparisons, etc.,and facilitate drill downs into the output of the simulations to providedetailed data about simulated migration plans to the user. The dashboard131 can provide analytic views for scenario product planning, wirecenter or individual customer migrations. The views can be linkeddirectly to the LMARs and users can interact with the views (e.g., drilldowns) to understand and gain insights into the underlying customer,product and network data.

FIG. 3B shows data that is an LMAR. As shown in FIG. 3B, legacymigration data entities may include a customer model, a product modeland a network model and information in these models are included in theLMAR. The models show the types of information in the LMAR and how theinformation is associated. The LMAR includes customer data from thecustomer model, such as customer segment (e.g., enterprise, wholesale,small business (SMB) or consumer), service address, contractinformation, marketing and migration demographics, which includecustomer demographics and may be used to determine a customer'spropensity to migrate and competitive overlays, etc. The customer modelalso include billing information, such as the monthly bill, billedrevenue and billing codes that identify legacy products that are billedto the customer. The network model identifies the service address of thecustomer, and the circuit and wire center that services the customer.Also, for the service address, IP access availability, target productavailability and completive provider service offerings are included inthe network model. Also, the network model includes service codes forthe circuit, and the service codes identify the legacy productssubscribed to by the customer. The product model include the legacyproducts subscribed to by the customer. The legacy products areidentified by the billing codes and service codes and this informationis used for reconciliation. The legacy products and their features andthe corresponding target products and features that map to the legacyproducts and their features are included in the product model. Also,pricing of the target products are included. The information shown inFIG. 3B may be flattened and loaded into an LMAR table as shown in FIG.3B. The LMAR table stores LMARs for each customer.

FIG. 4 shows a data flow diagram, including data processing steps,inputs, outputs, database extracts, and datasets, for the serviceprovider network migration system 100. The data flow includes productmapping at 410, circuit data extraction and joining at 420, migrationsequencing at 430, LMAR dataset enrichment at 440, scenario planning at450, and migration playbook creation, offer creation and order creationat 460. For product mapping at 410, the system 100 stores a mapping oflegacy products to target products at 411. The stored mappings are shownas product mappings dataset 412. A legacy product may map to multipletarget products offered in the target infrastructure. For example, inthe copper-based telecommunication network infrastructure 10, a legacydata service was provided to customers over a T1 line at 1.5 megabitsper second (Mbps). Three different data products offered on thefiber-based telecommunication network infrastructure 20 are mapped tothe legacy data service. For example, target products in the fiber-basedtelecommunication network infrastructure 20 may include the following:one data product may include 10 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload; asecond data product may be provide managed 100 Mbps download bandwidthand a third data product may be 500 Mbps. Each data product may havedifferent pricing, such as $30.00 per month for the first data product,$100 per month for the second data product, and $500.00 per month forthe third data product. The mapping information in the product mappingsdataset 412 may include the pricing information. For the mapping,products may be grouped by circuit, service type, etc. The productmappings for the product mappings dataset 412 may be entered by a userand stored in the data storage 150 shown in FIG. 3A.

Once the product mappings dataset 412 is created and stored, it can beused to map a specific legacy product to one or more particular targetproducts in the target infrastructure. For example, at 413, the system100 links the circuit service codes to the legacy products currentlybeing provided to a set of one or more customers. The service codesidentify which legacy products are being provided by each individualcircuit in the joined circuits dataset 406. A unique set of servicelinking codes may be stored in the service linking dataset 416. Thesystem 100 determines the legacy products corresponding to the circuitservice codes from the product mappings dataset 412 at 413. At 414, thesystem 100 joins legacy products with corresponding target productsbased on the product mappings dataset 412. The pricing information maybe stored in the product mappings dataset 412 and is applied to thetarget products at 415. An LMAR is created at 458, and the targetproducts and their pricing are stored in the LMAR along with otherinformation, such as described with respect to FIG. 3B. If more than onetarget product maps to a legacy product, then multiple target productsare stored in the LMAR.

The circuit data extraction and joining 420 shown in FIG. 4 may includereconciliation performed by the system 100. For example, the circuitdata extraction and joining 420 and the product mapping 410 may beperformed by the modeler and reconciliator 111 shown in FIG. 3A.

Billing data, provisioned circuit data and network element data areextracted from the data sources 421, 422, and 423 to createcorresponding datasets 425, 427 and 429. The information may beextracted periodically from the data sources 421, 422, and 423 for thedatasets 425, 427 and 429. The billing dataset 425 includes informationfrom a customer invoicing enterprise application and include customerinformation, such as a customer ID, customer service address, servicesthe customer is paying for, service constraints, disconnect dates, aworking telephone number, a data circuit ID, etc. The provisionedcircuits dataset 427 includes information for circuits that arecurrently provisioned in the legacy infrastructure. This information mayidentify the services currently implemented by the circuit and mayidentify a working telephone number or a data circuit ID for theservices and the service address where the circuit terminates atspecific geographic location (e.g., the location of the customer), butthe information typically does not identify the customer associated witha particular service currently implemented by the circuit. Theinformation may also include other circuit information, such as speed,class of service, etc. This information may be entered and maintained bynetwork administrators. The network element dataset 429 includesinformation about network elements in a wire center including equipmentinside a central office and outside a central office running to thecustomer premises. The network elements may be queried to get thisinformation.

At 424, 426 and 428, billing data, provisioned circuit data and networkelement data are extracted from the corresponding datasets to createjoined circuits dataset 406. For example, billing data, provisionedcircuit data and network element data for a particular customer or for aparticular product or wire center in the legacy infrastructure 10 isextracted. The retrieved data is joined to create joined circuitsdataset 406. A common field in the retrieved data may be used to jointhe retrieved data. For example, working telephone number for a voiceservice or digital circuit ID for a data service may be common fieldsbetween billing data and circuit data. For example, in the joinedcircuits dataset 406, a customer is associated with a circuit and a wirecenter providing a service for the customer. Then, this information maybe used to migrate the customer to a corresponding new service, such asdescribed with respect to product mapping 410, and to migrate thecustomer to a new circuit in the target infrastructure providing the newservice. Typically, service providers do not connect or fully understandthe related underlying data for the circuits and network elements thatare supporting the services that a particular customer is being billedfor. The joined circuits dataset 406, however, links the customer,service and circuit information, which is used for developing amigration plan.

The migration sequencing 430 determines availability of networkinfrastructure and new products in the target infrastructure formigrating services to the target infrastructure. For example, fiberavailability dataset 432 indicates when fiber will be available at anode or at a customer premises. Installation of fiber for the targetinfrastructure is scheduled and the schedule is used to determine theavailability of the fiber. Product availability dataset 434 indicateswhen the new products are estimated to be available in the targetinfrastructure. Contract constraints dataset 436 identifies customercontract service constraints, which may include service levelagreements. At 431, 433 and 435, information is retrieved from thecorresponding datasets 432, 434 and 436 to determine when a legacyservice can be migrated to a new product. This information is determinedfor the target products determined at the product mapping 410 and storedin the LMAR dataset 458. For example, at 431, a service address of thecustomer is known, and from the fiber availability dataset 432, adetermination is made as to when a fiber transport for a correspondingIP service mapped to the legacy service is available. Similarly, at 433,a determination is made as to when the corresponding IP service isavailable and at 435 a determination is made as to whether the contactconstraints can be met by the IP service.

The LMARs may include a variety of information for determining themigration plan. An LMAR may include a service address, legacy product,mapped target products, pricing, availability of transport, availabilityof target products, contact constraints, customer demographics,competitor information etc. This information may be used to generatemigration plans and score cards for the migration plans. LMARs arecreated and stored in LMAR legacy migration dataset 458.

The datasets shown in FIG. 4 are used to determine a migration plan andother information. For example, at 452 in FIG. 4, a migration strategyis determined. A migration strategy specifies segregation for servicerollout in the target infrastructure. A customer approach, circuitapproach, etc., may be selected for the migration strategy. Servicerollout for example is the provisioning of services for customers in thetarget network infrastructure according to a sequence determined basedon the migration strategy as specified in the migration plan. By way ofexample, migration strategy may be a migration to be executed by wirecenter, by product, customer segment or by customer. In one example, theuser input 170 may include a selection of the migration strategy.

At 453-456, a user may select a set of one or more wire centers,products, customer segments or customers to migrate. For example, if awire center approach is used, one wire center or multiple wire centersmay be selected. Depending on the determined migration strategy, whichmay be by wire center, by product, by customer segment or by customer, aset of one or more wire centers, products or customers is selected. At457, the system 100 generates queries on the LMARs to create a migrationplan according to the migration strategy. To create LMARs, at 441Customer Demographics By Service Address is extracted and joined withother LMAR data. Also, at 442, competitor service information isincluded to determine number of competitors that can provide services atthe service address to estimate the customer propensity to migrate forthe migration rate and it may be used to determine or modify pricing foroffers.

The circuit data extraction and joining performed at 405 can be used forcapacity planning and QoS optimization and for revenue optimization forthe migration plan. In one example, the billing information, circuitinformation and network information for all the circuits, customers andproducts are previously joined at 405 and stored in the jointed circuitsdataset 406, and then the data is queried according to the queriescreated at 4457 to slice, dice and select the data by customer, productor wire center. The data in the joined circuits dataset 406 correlatingcustomers with circuits can be used to provide an indication of howimportant a particular circuit is to a customer in terms of providing aservice. If it is determined that a particular circuit is providing 75%of the services to a customer, than that circuit may be migrated firstor generally before another circuit which may not be providing servicesto the customer or may have less of an impact on the customer's servicesor may currently provide lower priority services. In another example, ifmore revenue is associated with a set of one or more circuits, then thatset of circuits may be given a higher priority in the migrationsequencing. Could be done in a batch. For example, if a circuit isassociated with a legacy product that is being mapped to a new producton the target infrastructure that is estimated to return 110-120%because there's an up sale, that product is migrated first. Informationfrom the joined circuits dataset 406, and the product mappings andpricing is included in the LMAR at 457 to determine the migration plan459 that can optimize QoS and revenue.

From LMARs stored in the LMAR dataset 458, migration plans 459,migration playbooks 462, migration offers 464 and migration orders 467are created at 460. Multiple migration plans may be created varyingapproaches or migration parameters to select an optimal migration plan.A migration plan for example includes a set of legacy circuits andsequencing for migration. The plan may group the circuits by customer,customer segment, wire center or product. The plan takes intoconsideration when the new infrastructure is ready for the migration,such as when the transport and target infrastructure circuits areinstalled and ready to provide the target services.

At 461, a migration playbook is created. The migration playbook forexample includes is an output from a scenario plan. The migrationplaybook can take a series of migrations and put them together andcontain the sequencing and the options for migration.

At 463 a migration offer is created. The migration offer for exampleincludes an offer to the customer for the target products and prices,and may include monetary inducement to migrate.

At 460 a migration order is created. The migration order for exampleincludes dates for migration if an offer is accepted. When an order iscreated, additional information at 465 may be needed to automaticallycreate the order from the network element dataset 429. The additionalinformation may be information related to the service and circuitsproviding the service.

At 470, the circuits are provisioned to provide the ordered services andaccording to a migration plan. The provisioning may includeauto-configuration of parameters of the circuits which may be performedby the network provisioning subsystem 141 described above.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method 500 according to an embodiment for creatinga migration plan, and forecasting and scoring the migration plan. Themigration plan may be an LMSP and is shown in FIG. 4 and described withrespect to 441 and 442. Furthermore, the steps of the method 500 may beperformed by the migration sequencing server shown in FIG. 2B and theLMSP creator 113 and the simulation and forecasting stage 120 shown inFIG. 3A.

At 501, migration parameters are set. In one example, a user entersmigration parameters and the migration parameters are stored by thesystem 100. The system 100 may include templates displayed via thedashboard 131 that include default values for the migration parameters,segmenting information, sequencing information and sizing information.The user can modify the default values as needed and the values arestored.

The LMSP can be constrained by resource assignment, duration or otherfactors that may be specified as migration parameters. Some additionalexamples of the migration parameters may include but are not limited to:customer migration rate by segment, target product unit price, customermigration velocity by segment, network migration velocity by segment,CPE costs, labor rates by location, wire center operating cost savings,capital expenditure, and operating cost savings due to legacy productretirement.

At 502, segmenting is determined. Segmenting is the determination ofwhether customers, products, wire centers, etc., are to be grouped andconsidered as a group for the migration plan or whether they should betreated individually. For example, an LMSP can be scoped to a segment,such as being scoped to an individual customer, a group of customers, acustomer segment, a group of customer segments, an individual wirecenter, a group of wire centers, an individual legacy product or a groupof legacy products. Also, LMSPs may be structured hierarchically. Forexample, a product scenario LMSP may aggregate one or more wire centerLMSPs, and a wire center LMSP may aggregate one or more customer LMSPsbased on the scope of the plan. Different planning methods, sequences,and templates are applied based on customer segmentation.

Discrete migration is a customer migration for a single locationcustomer executed via a single work flow. This is the simplest kind ofcustomer migration. Coordinated migration is a customer migration formulti-product, multi-location customers executed via multiple,coordinated work flows. Coordinated migration is an aggregate ofmultiple discrete migrations.

Segmenting can allow the largest customers to be planned and coordinatedvia a more detailed method and the smallest customers to be macromodeled in bulk. Medium sized customers are segmented for individual ormacro modeling based on set of system rules. This approach allows forthe automated bulk planning of most customers and detailed coordinationplanning of the carrier's most important and complex customers. Thecriteria for deciding bulk verses individualized detailed planning isbased on the segment that the carrier has assigned to the customer.Examples of segments are now described. Enterprise segment customers areindividually modeled via a set of one or more coordinated migrationplans. Small business segment customers that subscribe to multipleproducts across multiple service locations are also individually modeledvia a coordinated migration plan. The small business segment customersthat are served via a single service address are modeled in bulk asdiscrete migrations. The consumer segment is modeled in bulk as discretemigrations.

At 503, sequencing is determined. Sequencing includes organizingmigrations into a series of sequential and/or simultaneous work flows.Sequencing may be determined from a sequencing approach selected by auser. Examples of different approaches may include the following:

Customer Approach

-   -   By Coordinated then Discrete    -   By Discrete then Coordinated    -   From highest to smallest revenue    -   From smallest to largest revenue    -   From most to least products    -   From least to most products;

Service Address Approach

-   -   Migrate all products at Service Address together;

Circuit Approach

-   -   Migrate all products provisioned on circuit together;

Product Approach

-   -   By most labor intensive to least labor intensive    -   By least labor intensive to most labor intensive    -   From high to low customer impact    -   From low to high customer impact

For example, if a customer approach is taken, sequencing may includemigrating customer-by-customer. For example, technicians got o to anenterprise customer site and do everything in that site and work theirway through, customer-by-customer. In another example, migration isperformed circuit-by-circuit which may cause operational expenses toincrease. However, due to customer constraints, customers may not beable to migrate site-by-site due to customer constraints. A customer maynot allow certain services to be changed at particular times, so this isprovided as a constraint parameter and is used to determine the sequencefor migration.

At 504, sizing is determined. Sizing includes calculating a migrationplan's capital expense, migration costs, labor resources and orduration. Each LMSP may have a set of sizing parameters. Sizingparameters may define labor hours and rates by role. Roles may be brokendown by functional area, such as program management, customercommunications, account management, network engineering, and customercare. Labor roles are applied across each of the coordinated anddiscrete customer migration plans contained with the scenario plan.

At 505, a migration plan is created based on the migration parameters,segmenting, sequencing and sizing. An example of a migration plan isshown in FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, a coordinated network migration plan at 601for a customer. 602 shows an example of an individual network migrationplan for Multi Location Private Data Lines/Data Services that isincluded in the coordinated network migration plan at 601. Sequencingand sizing information is included in the plans. For example, sequentialor simultaneous refers to the sequencing of products for the customer.As shown in 602, the legacy products and the corresponding targetproduct are shown in each row, which may be determined from the productmapping information (e.g., an LMAR including product mappings in theproduct mappings dataset 412), along with circuit ID for the legacyproduct, wire center, etc., which may be determined from the LMARincluding information from the joined circuits dataset 406. Sizinginformation is also shown, such as by role, number of hours, etc. Also,customer impact, such as low, medium or high, is shown and may be usedfor sequencing. 603 shows network migration scoping, whereby, a list ofproducts, wire centers and service addresses are shown for a customerand may be selected for the migration.

At 506 in FIG. 5, forecasting is performed by the system 100 to simulatethe deploying of the target products. Multiple metrics are forecasted bythe system 100 for the simulation. For example, migration rate from alegacy product to a particular product is estimated based on historicinformation. Migration rate is the number of current subscribers of alegacy product that will migrate to a particular target product. In manysituations, the service provider deploys the target networkinfrastructure but does not know whether the customers will migrate to anew target product or will go with another service provider.Furthermore, multiple target products may map to a single legacyproduct, and it is not known which target product will be selected by acustomer if the customer decides to stay with the service provider. Thesystem 100 estimates the number of customers that will subscribe to eachtarget product for the simulation. Also, based on the estimation,capacity planning is performed for the target network infrastructure toensure the circuits in the target infrastructure can meet the servicelevel requirements which may be specified in service level agreementswith the customers. This may include provisioning hardware that providesadequate bandwidth for the estimated number of target products.

In one example, a clustering algorithm is used for forecasting thatclusters customers by attributes. K-means clusters may be used to createclusters based on attributes of customers and then assign each customerto a cluster that has the attributes of the cluster or the closestmatching cluster. The clusters may be created from a historic dataset ofcustomer migration information that may include information for manythousands of customers. The following steps may be performed for K-meansclustering: 1. start with a randomly selected K seeds that will be theseeds for the K clusters; 2. allocate the objects to each nearest seed;3. compute the new centroid of each cluster and set these as the newseeds; and 4. repeat from 2 until the centroids will not change. Theseed for example is an initial set of attributes that define a clusterand the objects are the customers. Once the clusters are determined,migration rates are determined for each cluster. Then, these migrationrates can be applied to the customers of the legacy products in thelegacy network infrastructure to estimate the migration rate of targetproducts. Based on the estimate of migration rate for each targetproduct, other information can be estimated for the target products suchas costs, revenue, profit, return on investment, etc.

FIG. 7 shows an example of forecasted metrics over time for a migrationplan. The forecasted metrics may include legacy circuits, legacysubscribers, new tech subscribers, legacy revenue, new tech revenue,total revenue, network operating expense, migration expense and salvageincome. 701 shows a bar graph of the forecasted metrics, and 702 showsline graphs of the forecasted metrics by quarter. For the forecastedmetrics that are measured in terms of a monetary value, a net presentvalue is determined. FIG. 8 shows an example of the net present valuedetermined for forecasted metrics.

Referring back to FIG. 5, at 507, scores are determined for themigration plan based on the forecasts. The migration plan is scored bymultiple dimensions including: customer impact, complexity, size,productivity, capital investment, reoccurring revenue, onetime expense,onetime salvage recovery and reoccurring savings. Each migration planhas a single aggregate score assigned to it. The aggregate score iscalculated using all of the individual scores.

At 508, a migration plan is selected and at 509 the target products aredeployed according to the selected plan. A migration plan may beselected based on the forecasts. For example, the scores are determinedbased on the forecasts and the plan is selected based on the scores. Thetarget products are deployed for example if they are ordered by thecustomer. The provisioning subsystem of the system 100 automaticallyconfigures circuits in the target network infrastructure to deploy thetarget products.

FIG. 9 shows an example of scores generated for a migration plan. In oneexample, scores for expenses and revenue may be determined based ontheir net present value. For example, the scores shown in FIG. 9 forcapital expenditure (CAPEX), revenue gain, migration and salvage costs,salvage recovery, etc., may be based on net present value. Examples ofnet present values are shown in FIG. 8. In one example, ranges areselected for a score, and if the net present value falls within a rangeof a particular score, then that score is applied. Other scores, such asfor number of migrations and number of circuits, may also be determinedfrom predetermined ranges. The complexity score may be based on thenumber of circuits, number of migrations, number of customers, andnumber of products. These values are combined to determine thecomplexity score.

As shown in FIG. 9, an aggregate score, an estimated net present valueand an estimated rate of return (ROI) are determined for the migrationplan. The aggregated score is calculated as a function of the individualscores, which may be weighted. The aggregate score and/or individualscores, the estimated net present value and the ROI may be used tocompare migration plans. Multiple different migration plans may besimulated by repeating steps 501-507. Steps 501-507 may be repeated afinite number of times according to the number of migration plans theuser wants to create. Migration parameters, sizing, segmentation,migration approach for sequence, scope, etc., may be varied to determinedifferent migration plans and score the plans. Scores, net present valueand ROI may be compared to select the optimal migration plan toimplement.

The system 100 can also automatically optimize a migration plan bychanging one or more of the factors that are used to generate themigration plan, such as migration parameters, sizing, segmentation,migration approach for sequence, scope, etc., according to apredetermined objective. For example, one or more of the followingobjectives are selected by the user: minimize customer impact, minimizecost, minimize time, maximize revenue, and maximize return oninvestment. The factors are varied to achieve the objective. In oneexample, logistic regression is used to determine the factors to achievethe objective. Sequences of logistic regressions isolate and measure theimpact of the factors on the objective. Logistic regression is awell-established statistical technique that estimates the outcome ofdependent variable, which is the objective in this case. Logisticregression measures the relationship between a categorical dependentvariable and one or more independent variables, which may include thefactors described above, by using probability scores as the predictedvalues of the dependent variable.

One or more of the steps of the methods described herein and other stepsdescribed herein and one or more of the components of the systemsdescribed herein may be implemented as computer code stored on acomputer readable storage medium, such as the memory and/or secondarystorage, and executed on a computer system, for example, by a processor,application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or other controller. Thecode may exist as software program(s) comprised of program instructionsin source code, object code, executable code or other formats. Examplesof computer readable storage medium include conventional computer systemRAM (random access memory), ROM (read only memory), EPROM (erasable,programmable ROM), EEPROM (electrically erasable, programmable ROM),hard drives, and flash memory.

While the embodiments have been described with reference to examples,those skilled in the art will be able to make various modifications tothe described embodiments without departing from the scope of theclaimed embodiments.

1. A system to migrate network services from a first networkinfrastructure to a second network infrastructure, the systemcomprising: the first network infrastructure comprising a first set ofcircuits providing voice and data services over a network to customerpremises; and a service provider network migration system including atleast one inventory and provisioning server to capture data from theplurality of circuits in the first network infrastructure and toconfigure circuits in the second network infrastructure, wherein theservice provider network migration system includes at least onemigration sequencing server to access one or more databases storing aprovisioned circuits dataset including information for the plurality ofcircuits in the first network infrastructure; and a billing datasetincluding information for customers at the customer premises, whereinthe migration sequencing server comprises: a modeler and reconcilatorgenerating a joined circuits dataset from the information in theprovisioned circuits dataset and the billing dataset, the joinedcircuits dataset associating each of the plurality of circuits in thefirst network infrastructure with at least one voice or data serviceprovided by the circuit and a customer receiving the at least one voiceor data service; a migration plan creator to receive migrationparameters for migrating the voice and data services from the firsttechnology infrastructure to target services in the second technologyinfrastructure, the migration parameters including sequencinginformation for migration to the target services in the second networkinfrastructure, wherein the migration plan creator creates a migrationplan for migrating the voice and data services to the target services inthe second network infrastructure based on the joined circuits datasetand the migration parameters, wherein the migration plan includes asequence for the migration; a simulator determining forecasts forcustomer migration rate and revenue generation for the target servicesbased on the migration plan, historic customer migration data andattributes of customers subscribed to the voice and data servicesprovided in the first network infrastructure; and a scenario plan scorergenerating scores for the migration plan based on metrics determined forthe migration plan and the forecasts, wherein the metrics include atleast a plurality of: customer migration impact level, complexity formigration to the second network infrastructure, size based on number ofcircuits in the second network infrastructure, migration costs, salvagerecovery, and return on investment; wherein if the migration plan isselected for implementation based on the forecasts, the inventory andprovisioning server configures parameters for the circuits in the secondnetwork infrastructure via a network according to the migration plan todeploy the target services in the second network infrastructure.
 2. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein the migration sequencing serverdetermines and stores a product mappings dataset in the one or moredatabases, wherein the product mappings dataset comprises a mapping foreach of the voice and data services to at least one the target services,and the migration plan creator determines the at least one the targetservice for each of the voice and data services and pricing for the atleast one the target service to include in the migration plan from theproduct mappings dataset.
 3. The system according to claim 1, whereinthe service provider network migration system stores datasets indicatingavailability of transport infrastructure for the target services,availability of the target services in the second networkinfrastructure, and contract constraints for the target services, andthe migration plan creator determines the sequencing for the migrationplan based on the availability of the transport infrastructure, theavailability of the target services in the second networkinfrastructure, and the contract constraints.
 4. The system of claim 1,wherein the service provider network migration system generates andstores legacy network migration records (LMARs), wherein each LMARincludes a customer subscribing to at least one of the data and voiceservices in the first network infrastructure, demographics for thecustomer, a customer service address, a circuit providing the at leastone data and voice service in the first network infrastructure, a wirecenter including the circuit that services the customer, a billing rateand revenue generated for the at least one data and voice service atleast record, and at least of the target services mapped to the at leastone data and voice service, wherein the migration plan and the forecastsare determined from the LMARs.
 5. (canceled)
 6. The system of claim 1,wherein the simulator simulates a plurality of migration plans, anddetermines forecasts for each migration plan, and the scenario planscorer determines a score for each migration plan based on thesimulations, wherein the scores are compared to prioritize the migrationplans according to the scores and are presented via a dashboardindicating the priority.
 7. A service provider network migration systemto migrate services from a first network infrastructure to a secondnetwork infrastructure, the system comprising: one or more databasesstoring a joined circuits dataset associating each of a plurality ofcircuits in the first network infrastructure with a service provided bythe circuit and a customer receiving the service, a product mappingsdataset including a mapping for each service in the first networkinfrastructure to at least one target service of a plurality of targetservices to be provided in the second network infrastructure, and legacynetwork migration records (LMARs), wherein each LMAR includes customerinformation for a customer, any services subscribed to by the customerin the first network infrastructure, a circuit in the first networkinfrastructure providing each service subscribed to by the customer, awire center including the circuit that services the customer, revenueinformation associated with revenue generated by the subscribed service,and at least of the target services mapped to each subscribed service;and at least one migration sequencing server comprising: a modeler andreconcilator generating the joined circuits dataset; a migration plancreator to receive migration parameters for migrating the services fromthe first technology infrastructure to the target services in the secondtechnology infrastructure, the migration parameters including sequencinginformation for migration of the plurality of circuits in the firstnetwork infrastructure to the circuits in the second networkinfrastructure providing the target services, wherein the migration plancreator creates a migration plan for migrating to the target services inthe second network infrastructure based on the joined circuits dataset,the product mappings dataset, the LMARs and the migration parameters,wherein the migration plan includes a sequence for migrating to thetarget services in the second network infrastructure; a simulatordetermining forecasts for customer migration rate and revenue generationfor the target services based on the migration plan, historic customermigration data and attributes of the customers; and a scenario planscorer generating scores for the migration plan based on metricsdetermined for the migration plan and the forecasts, wherein the metricsinclude at least a plurality of: customer migration impact level,complexity for migration to the second network infrastructure, sizebased on number of circuits in the second network infrastructure,migration costs, salvage recovery, and return on investment; wherein ifthe migration plan is selected for implementation based on theforecasts, an inventory and provisioning server configures parametersfor the circuits in the second network infrastructure via a networkaccording to the migration plan to deploy the target services in thesecond network infrastructure.
 8. The service provider network migrationsystem according to claim 7, wherein the one or more databases storedatasets indicating availability of transport infrastructure for thetarget services, availability of the target services in the secondnetwork infrastructure, and contract constraints for the targetservices, and the migration plan creator determines the sequencing forthe migration plan based on the availability of the transportinfrastructure, the availability of the target services in the secondnetwork infrastructure, and the contract constraints.
 9. (canceled) 10.The service provider network migration system of claim 7, wherein thesimulator simulates a plurality of migration plans, and determinesforecasts for each migration plan, and the scenario plan scorerdetermines a score for each migration plan based on the simulations,wherein the scores are compared to prioritize the migration plansaccording to the scores and are presented via a dashboard indicating thepriority.
 11. A method of migrating services from a first networkinfrastructure to a second network infrastructure, the methodcomprising: determining a joined circuits dataset associating each of aplurality of circuits in the first network infrastructure with a serviceprovided by the circuit and a customer receiving the service;determining a product mappings dataset including a mapping for eachservice in the first network infrastructure to at least one targetservice of a plurality of target services to be provided in the secondnetwork infrastructure; receiving migration parameters for migrating theservices from the first technology infrastructure to the target servicesin the second technology infrastructure, the migration parametersincluding sequencing information for migration to the target services;creating a migration plan for migrating to the target services in thesecond network infrastructure based on the joined circuits dataset, theproduct mappings dataset, and the migration parameters, wherein themigration plan includes a sequence for migrating to the target servicesin the second network infrastructure; determining forecasts for customermigration rate and revenue generation for the target services based onthe migration plan, historic customer migration data and attributes ofthe customers; and generating scores for the migration plan based onmetrics determined for the migration plan and the forecasts, wherein themetrics include at least a plurality of: customer migration impactlevel, complexity for migration to the second network infrastructure,size based on number of circuits in the second network infrastructure,migration costs, salvage recovery, and return on investment, wherein ifthe migration plan is selected for implementation based on theforecasts, configuring parameters for the circuits in the second networkinfrastructure via a network according to the migration plan to deploythe target services in the second network infrastructure.
 12. The methodof claim 11, comprising: storing datasets indicating availability oftransport infrastructure for the target services, availability of thetarget services in the second network infrastructure, and contractconstraints for the target services; and determining the sequencing forthe migration plan based on the availability of the transportinfrastructure, the availability of the target services in the secondnetwork infrastructure, and the contract constraints.
 13. (canceled) 14.The method of claim 11, comprising: simulating a plurality of migrationplans; determining forecasts for each migration plan; determining ascore for each migration plan based on the simulations; comparing thescores to prioritize the migration plans according to the scores; andpresenting the comparison via a dashboard.
 15. The method of claim 14,wherein determining a score for each migration plan based on thesimulations comprises: determining a score card for each migration plan,wherein the score card comprises a plurality of scored metricsassociated with customer migration impact level, complexity of themigration, number of circuits in the second network infrastructure,number of migrated circuits, migration execution time, operating andcapital expenses, salvage revenue, and gained customer revenue from themigration.
 16. The method of claim 11, comprising: querying networkelements in the first network infrastructure to determine networkparameters for the network elements, wherein the network parameters areused to determine the joined circuits dataset.
 17. The method of claim11, comprising: remotely configuring network elements in the secondnetwork infrastructure via a network to set network parameters for thenetwork elements.
 18. The method of claim 11, comprising: determining atleast one of a customer approach, a service address approach, a circuitapproach, and a product approach for migrating the services from thefirst technology infrastructure to the target services in the secondtechnology infrastructure.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein thedetermined approach includes the sequencing information.
 20. The methodof claim 11, comprising: storing legacy network migration records(LMARs) to create migration plans, wherein each LMAR includes a customerinformation for a customer, any services subscribed to by the customerin the first network infrastructure, a circuit in the first networkinfrastructure providing each service subscribed to by the customer, awire center including the circuit that services the customer, revenueinformation associated with revenue generated by the subscribed service,and at least of the target services mapped to each subscribed service.